"To Be"

Çomyopregi has two verbs with the meaning "to be," esmi and veum. In some cases, they may be used interchangeably, but usually there is a well-defined distinction between them. Veum has a much stronger connotation, often like "exist" or "reside," while esmi is merely a copula linking a noun to a complementary noun or adjective. Thus, if you are stating a quality of someone, or the person's name (or the name of a group to which he belongs), or his or her momentary location, use esmi. While esmi requires a complement, veum may be used without one. Hamlet's immortal question, "To be or not to be," would be translated Viondo ul ne viondo. Veum is also used to indicate a person's origin, where he lives, or in general statements about where he is habitually at a particular time. Finally, sometimes when esmi would be expected, veum is used instead for emphasis. Neither verb has passive forms, and both are irregular (see Irregular Declensions and Conjugations).

Deponent Verbs

One odd group of verbs are the deponent verbs. These verbs have only passive forms, but those forms have an active sense. Since there are no active forms, deponents have different principal parts, the first-person singular present indicative passive, and the perfect passive participle; the present stem is derived by removing the passive ending from the first principal part. (There are only two principal parts ?Ethe perfect stem is only found in the active tenses of verbs.)

"Dative" Verbs

While most transitive verbs (which have direct objects, remember) require the accusative, some require that their direct objects instead be in the dative. Some such verbs are: